1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates to counters for displaying chilled food on a bed of ice, and more particularly to counters for displaying fresh fish.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
Conventionally, fresh fish is displayed upon a bed of ice to keep the fish cold and prevent the development of offensive odors. Over a period of a few hours, and especially by the end of the day, scraps of fish shell, and other debris have become distributed in the bed of ice, and the display begins to smell. At the end of the day, particularly for stores which stay open in the evening, the smell often becomes so offensive that customers are driven away from the store.
The usual fish display counters provide a shallow tray into which crushed, chopped or cubed ice is placed to form an ice bed. Usually, the trays have a drain hose leading to a floor drain for removing liquid water as the ice melts. When further ice is required, the storekeeper obtains ice from a central icemaking facility in the store, lifts up the fish and throws scoop of fresh ice onto the ice bed.
At closing time, the storekeeper removes the fish and transports it to a central refrigerating unit for overnight storage. At times, if the fish has developed a strong odor, such odor will be imparted to other foods such as fruits and vegetables also stored in the refrigerating unit.
After the fish is removed, the storekeeper scoops up the ice in the tray and loads it into a plastic garbage can when it is allowed to melt, partially or fully, before being dumped into the floor drain.
At the beginning of the next work day, the storekeeper obtains tubs of ice from the central icemaking facility and shovels it into the tray to form a fresh bed of ice. The fish are then transported from the refrigerating facility to the counter and are arranged on the bed of ice.
As each of the described operations takes place, bits of fish and contaminated ice can escape and help create the offensive smell.
The foregoing commentary also applies to other situations where chilled food is displayed on a bed of ice, for example, salad bars for supermarkets and restaurants. The odor problem is not as great with salad bars as with fish displays but offensive smells can occur. The laborious transporting of the chilled food to a refrigerating facility, removal of the used ice bed, cleaning of the unit, and replenishment of the ice bed from a separate icemaking facility presents similar problem in the case of salad bars and the like. Typical of such salad bars is the construction shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,598, issued Feb. 25, 1986 to Franklin Moore, Jr.
Ice is sometimes used in enclosed cases such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 20,966 issued Jan. 3, 1939 to R. E. Ottenheimer and in various containers for transporting fish such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,481 issued Apr. 20, 1971 to G. A. Phlieger, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,756,681 issued Sept. 4, 1973 to W. G. Croston; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,346 issued Apr. 29, 1980 to P. Belokin, Jr. Other examples of display counters which are refrigerated but do not use ice may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,712,890 issued May 14, 1929 to C. LaHatte; U.S. Pat. No. 1,924,505 issued Aug. 29, 1933 to H. H. Long; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,819 issued June 2, 1981 to M. Ooho.
The above-listed patents are believed to be relevant to the present invention because they were adduced by a prior art search made by an independent searcher, and a copy of each of the above-listed patents is supplied to the Patent and Trademark Office herewith.